Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 16.2 points higher (56.0 vs 39.8) but costs 6.6× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1100; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 39.8 | −28.9% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 28.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,100.06 | −84.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 84.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 367.63s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 28.9% less intelligence, 84.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-8-flash-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/gemini-3-8-flash-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill